Contact Your Representative Now if He or She is Not a Co-Author
By Elna Christopher
Director of Media Relations
There are now 80 House members signed on to support HJR 56, Rep. Burt Solomons’ anti-unfunded mandate constitutional amendment (as of 4 p.m. Friday, March 11).
Because HJR 56 is a constitutional amendment, it requires 100 votes to pass the House, so we are 20 short of a sure thing to get it to the floor and passed.
We ask that you look at this list of house members who have NOT signed on and see if your representative’s name is on it.
If so, please contact your representative ASAP and request that he or she sign on as a co-author of this bi-partisan resolution.
As usual, time is of the essence in contacting your reps to become co-authors. Momentum for HJR 56 is building in the House; we cannot afford to lose steam now.
“It’s the right time to do it!” Solomons said.
The March 9 public hearing on HJR 56 was very successful, with supportive testimony by the Texas Association of Counties (TAC), the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas (CJCAT), the Texas Conference of Urban Counties (CUC) and the Texas Municipal League. Many other county officials signed in favoring HJR 56 but did not testify.
County representatives testifying were:
TAC has received resolutions supporting HJR 56 from 172 counties, and more have set it on their agendas during the next two weeks. If we do not have your county on the list, please e-mail officially passed copies to elnac@county.org or fax to Elna Christopher at (512) 478-3573. Here is the sample resolution if your county has not yet passed it.
The House Corrections Committee met March 9 to address HB 1915 and the proposed merger of the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC) into a new agency, the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
The new agency would be charged with coordinating and overseeing the facilitation and operation of all local and state juvenile justice services. Currently, the TJPC oversees juvenile services at the local level, working closely with local juvenile probation departments, and the TYC oversees operations at the state level operating and providing services to incarcerated youth.
From the county perspective, any savings recognized from downsizing the TYC or from a consolidation of the two agencies should be directed to county juvenile probation departments to ensure the effective implementation of the long-range goal of preventing more youth from being sent into the state’s juvenile and adult correctional system.
State funding and programs are the essential tools necessary to implement a successful juvenile justice system at the local level if the goal is to divert youth from state correctional commitments and save taxpayer money in the process. These tools are necessary regardless of whether the system is run by one encompassing agency or two separate agencies.
Projections are that the state would save as much as $150 million over two years with the merger. House Corrections Chairman Jerry Madden referred to HB 1915 as a shell bill and stated there will be working groups for stakeholder participation and input into the merging of the two agencies. Many witnesses offered recommendations for the merger concept, the most popular one echoed by nearly all who testified was “ensure the money follows the kids.”
If the proposed merger goes through, it is essential that the state does indeed commit to having the money follow the youth to the local level since it has been reported that:
The Legislature funded grants for new or expanded local commitment reduction programs in 2009; those programs are showing very positive results as referrals to the probation departments have decreased and fewer offenders are being committed to TYC — and these programs should be continued.
By Tim Brown
CIP Senior Analyst
TAC State Financial Analyst Paul Emerson and I are working on the following bills:
Emerson:
Brown:
To provide fiscal impact information, please contact Tim Brown at timb@county.org or call (800) 456-5974. Send information on Paul Emerson’s bills to paule@county.org or (800) 456-5974.